‘Final’ arrangements
Gloriosa and Timber were at Camp Everfree working as usual. Gloriosa was inside the office busy with accounting and managing the expenses of the camp; as Timber was sweeping the main entrance after he finished with the cabins’ general maintenance.
Timer’s phone rang, and he smiled when see the caller’s name. It was Twilight.
“Hey Twilight! What’s up?” smiled Timber with a dreamy smle.
“Timber, are your sister and you available? We have big new for you!” said Twilight.
“Sure, what’s going on? Are you girls organizing a new camp? Because we would be more than happy to give you a discount after everything you did for us!”
Twilight smiled, imagining how Timber would react at the big news.
“No Timber, not for the moment. But guess what? The girls and I found a company that is more than willing to become a sponsor for Camp Everfree!”
Timber’s jaw dropped. “What? A s-s-spon-pon-sor? What you mean? Like a real sponsor?”
At the other side of the line, Twilight smiled happy that she made Timber happy.
“Yes! Have you heard about Hinobi, the videogame titan? They’re willing to subsidize the camp’s expenses in exchange for you to allow them to put advertisings of their company and products around the camp.”
Timber could not believe it. “What? But how?!”
“Lots of things happened Timber. Believe me, you don’t wanna know. The important thing is that we told Hinobi about Camp Everfree and they are more than happy to help! Do you think Gloriosa may be interested?”
Timber didn’t answer. Instead he rushed inside the office.
“Gloriosa! Gloriosa! You’re not gonna believe this!!”
She raised her head from the pile of paper looking tired. “What? Did we get a two-week reservation by any chance? Because without that, I don’t think we would make it to the end of the month.”
Timber sighed sadly. Even with all the help they received from the Rainbooms back at that occasion, keeping the camp open was a month-to-month struggle. And deep in the bottom of their hearts, everyone knew that all the girls did was to delay the inevitable. And if they needed to sell, Filthy Rich would offer them a lesser amount.
But he smiled at his sister, as he put Twilight on speaker.
“I have great news! Twilight and her friends found a sponsor for the camp!”
“WHAT?!” said Gloriosa, jumping out of impression. “It can’t be! I’ve been looking for a sponsor for years! How is that they…? Oh, never mind! That’s great, if we manage to make a deal it would be the end of the camp’s problems! Those girls are wonderful!!”
Timber smiled, and turned to his phone. “Hey Twilight, Gloriosa loves the idea! A sponsor is just what we need.”
“Perfect, we’re on our way. See you in twenty minutes Tinder!”
And just as she said, twenty minutes later three white vans with the Hinobi logo arrived to the camp. The doors opened and the Rainbooms and a few Hionbi employees came from the vans.
“Welcome to Camp Everfree!” said Gloriosa with a bright smile.
“Twilight!” said Timber, running to hug Twilight.
Twilight blushed and hugged him back happily.
Giggling at the teenage love, a woman in a beige suit walked to Gloriosa and gave her a business card.
“Hi, nice to meet you! I am Barbara, a representative from Hinobi International. I guess you’re already aware of the reason of our visit, right?”
Gloriosa shook Barbara’s hand and examined the card.
“Hinobi, aren’t those videogames? Sorry for my confusion, but it doesn’t seem that your brand fits with a Camp in the middle of the woods.”
Barbara laughed. “I know, but as you know during the years Hinobi has been criticized over the years by people who keeps saying we encourage social isolation and child obesity. So we’re looking to promote physical activity by sponsoring schools’ sports teams, and camps.”
Gloriosa nodded in understanding. “I see, public relations. Well, I can’t complain. Thank you so much for taking us in consideration.”
“Of course! So, would like to discuss the details about the sponsorship?” asked Barbara.
“Absolutely! Timber, show the surroundings to the rest of our guests as I talk to this lady.”
“Sure thing!” said the boy.
He and the Rainbooms proceeded to show the camp to the Hinobi employees. And as they were on the hiking paths, when one of the employees turned to Twilight.
“Okay, where’s highest concentration of magic?” he asked with a map on his hands.
Timber raised an eyebrow. “Magic, what are you talking about?”
“They know Timber.” explained Sunset Shimmer.
“What?” asked Timber.
But the employee came and activated his Tech bracelet and shot him with a white light erasing his memory.
“Hey, that was uncalled for!” protested Twilight.
“The less people know about the operation the better, and you know it. Let’s get over with this! Last thing we need is another glitch infestation either here, or in your magical world of horses.”
Twilight sighed, knowing he was right.
“I’ll take you, but you have to leave that thing here!” said Rainbow Dash pointing at the bracelet.
“Of course, we’re not going to take any unnecessary risks.”
They needed to be extra careful in that area, if the barrier surrounding the camp went down by any reason; Hinobi would make sure that the cave would always have its own backup Anti-Hinobi-Tech barrier working no matter what.
In the meantime, Gloriosa and Barbara finished working with the details of the sponsorship and sealed the deal.
Gloriosa was worried that they would install arcade machines, TVs or gaming consoles inside of the cabins. Anything that would ruin the camping experience. But Barbara assured her that they wouldn’t do that since it would go against the image Hinobi was trying to spread.
All Hinobi wanted was to put banners on the common areas, sport fields and in the main entrance. Also all the camp employees would have to wear the Hinobi logo on their shirts. Basically, they were going to put their logo wherever they could but that would be it.
Everyone left very happy, especially Gloriosa.
Once they were on their way home, Twilight turned to Barbara.
“Thank you for what you did for Gloriosa and Tinder. Camp Everfree means everything for them!”
Barbara nodded. “We didn’t do it from the goodness of our hearts. We needed a believable excuse in case someone spots Hinobi employees on the surroundings. And also, it was true that we would take the chance to rebuild our image to the public eye so it’s a win-win situation.”
Twilight nodded, but Barbara winked an eye at her. “And the girl and your boyfriend are nice people, and I think they deserve it.”
Twilight smiled and didn’t say anything else during the rest of the day.
When they arrived at Canterlot High, Barbara waved goodbye at the Rainbooms.
“The school zone has been secured, and the Camp would be soon. From now on, if you see a Glitch Techs team please stay out of the situation and we would do the same when it comes to magic. I hope we don’t have to cross paths again, in a good way.”
Sunset nodded.
“Same here. Thank you for everything, Hinobi.”
Barbara smiled and drove off along with the rest of her people. It was over. Almost.
“Okay, I just have to go to Equestria to explain the situation to the Princesses and we can finally leave this problem behind!” said Sunset Shimmer.
“Do you want us to go with you for support?” asked Fluttershy.
“No thanks Fluttershy. This time I asked someone else to come with me.”
Two kids came around the corner and waved at them.
“Hey girls! We’re ready to meet your Princesses!” said Miko with a smile.
“Here we are without our Hinobi equipment as we promised!” said Five. “Is not like it would work now that the Anti-Tech-Barrier is up, but still.”
“Thank you for coming.” said Sunset. “Once we finish with the Princesses, we can leave all of this behind.”
“It’s a shame we cannot see more magic, but I guess is for the best. Let’s go to horse world!” said Miko happily.
Sunset smiled at them and then they crossed the portal.
At the other side, the Princesses were already waiting for them.
“Thank you for coming, Sunset Shimmer and friends.” greeted Princess Celestia. “Sorry, I don’t know your names yet.”
“Hi, I am Miko Kubota! Nice to meet you!” smiled Miko.
Five nervously bowed. “Hi, nice to meet you. My name is Héctor Nieves, but everyone calls me High Five.”
“Nice to meet you, Miko and Héctor.” said Princess Luna.
Twilight greeted them as well.
“Welcome back to Equestria. Now, first of all I wanted to thank you all for helping us during the Ponyville crisis. The ‘glitch’ attack was unprecedented and if it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t be able to control it on time.”
“We also have to thank you for taking preventive measure to avoid this from happening again.” added Princess Luna.
“That’s the most important!” said Five.
Then, over tea and pastries, they told the whole story. Sunset was who told most of it. Of how it all started with her newest console being accidentally touched by magic and releasing a ‘glitch’ and that’s how she met the Glitch Techs.
Miko and Five told them about their encounter at the mall with Father Brain and how they thought the powers of the Rainbooms came from some sort of glitch; as Sunset and friends thought Hinobi was misusing Equestrian Magic.
Then they told them about the tests they ran with Twilight’s counterpart and their conclusions.
“So, in the end glitches cannot use magic as such, but they are able to turn it into an alternate energy source that allows them to multiply.” finished Sunset Shimmer.
Princess Twilight nodded. “It’s a shame we cannot study more this Hinobi Tech and see why magic reacts this way when they get in contact. But I guess we cannot study it without endangering everypony.”
“Yeah, last time we tried it was a disaster!” said Five. “We were lucky we only trashed a living room, but still it was very dangerous.”
“Yeah, a disaster and all but at least it was fun!” said Miko.
Sunset glared at them. “What reminds me, you left without helping us to clean everything up! Shining Armor was furious!”
Miko and Five looked the other way. Twilight really wanted to ask what happened, but she decided she better not know.
“But everything went well in the end, and the zone was permabanned and all Hinobi Tech would stop working as soon as it enters the school surroundings so no glitch would enter here!” assured Five.
“A relief.” said Sunset.
Celestia and Luna nodded in agreement.
“The most interesting thing about this whole thing is that Hinobi Tech and Equestrian Magic have coexisted for a while, but never crossed paths until now.” said Princess Celestia thoughtful.
“Is like Twilight Sparkle says, we may need to study this Hinobi Tech in detail but that could endanger our little ponies.” finished Luna.
“Yeah please don’t!” said Sunset. “We made peace with Hinobi, and I think we all had enough.”
“Agreed!” said Celestia. “We understand, and this is why we’re here today. Miko Kubota, Héctor Nieves, as representatives of Hinobi I want your word that you’ll stay out of Equestrian Magic from now on. I know it was an accident, but in the end it was very dangerous for everyone involved.”
“Of course, Your Highness!” said Miko. “Our bosses already agreed.
“And you can count that from now on, if we see a strange creature that doesn’t trigger our systems we’ll step aside and let the girls handle it!” finished High Five.
With that Princess Celestia was happy with the agreement, and the Glitch Techs were dismissed. Sunset was about to join them but she was stopped by Celestia.
“Just a moment, Sunset Shimmer. Tell me one thing, do you think we can trust them?”
Sunset frowned.
“Yes and no Princess Celestia. Miko and Five are innocent. They’re just children working part time at a videogame store. Their intentions are pure, but that’s just them. I don’t think Hinobi actually let this go that easily.”
The Princesses agreed.
“Keep your eyes open, Sunset Shimmer. If you need help with Hinobi, let us know.”
“I will. Thank you, Princess Celestia.”
With hat she crossed the portal back to the human world.
Back at the school entrance, Sunset joined her friends and said goodbye to Miko and Five. Then the two groups split to Sugar Cube Corner and Joystick Junior’s respectively.
Location unknown; Hinobi International Labs:
A white van parked in front of the giant building, and a woman dressed in a beige suit came out of it, carrying a metallic box under her arm.
She placed her ID and eyeball on the scanner, and the doors opened.
“Welcome, Inspector Seven.” said the technician in charge.
She smiled. “Thanks professor. Here you go, fresh from Camp Everfree.”
The doctor received the box and opened it. An aquamarine crystal glowed from the inside. They could feel the energy flowing from the crystal.
The technician placed the crystal on an analysis table in the center of the facility as he and Barbara took a safe position behind a bulletproof crystal wall.
At his sign, an assistant turned un a switch and a machine started to feed electricity to the crystal. The idea was simple, if feeding magic to a piece of Hinobi Tech could provoke a reaction of creating a glitch; feeding a magic item with their tech would create a similar reaction.
The crystal started to tremble.
“Glitch Techs, take your positions!” commanded Barbara.
Several Techs assigned to the facility prepared their weapons to fight whatever shows up. But the crystal exploded in a million pieces before it could create a reaction. Or to summon a glitch.
“We need to find a larger concentration of this energy source if we want to get definitive results.” said the main technician. “But if we do so, we would need a bigger and safer space. Remember the incident with the corrupt gem?”
Barbara shivered. “Don’t remind me! You are right, however we got what we needed for the preliminary tests. I’ll try to get a larger sample of this so-called magic. In the meantime, shut down all the equipment and clean this up. Keep the fragments, we may need them for future tests.”